Warriors 122 Mavs 121 Grades: The Nellie Curse? Don Nelson used to coach the Warriors. Nellie also used to coach the Mavs. No reason to expect anything but classic Nellie ball tonight as both teams gets into the 120s. Actually, both teams did play some defense. The Warriors ended up with 15 steals, most resulting in uncontested dunks. Armstrong and Dampier played some good defense for the Mavs. Dirk even scores a season high 51 points, a career high in a non-overtime game, but it?s not enough. The Mavs nail their first 30 free throws but finish 5-8 including Jason?s missed free throw that led to Jason Richardson?s game winning trey off a spin move. Exciting game, just the wrong result?. Johnson: C-, Avery might be ready to spend another bullet as the Mavs defense was non-existent for most of the game, nearly as bad as the way the Mavs took care of the ball on their way to 20 turnovers. Marshall : B; Rawle started off with a great blocked shot as one of the few Mavs playing defense in the first half. Marshall is probably guaranteeing he will have a job for a few years in the NBA with his play of late, even if Avery isn?t quite convinced. Rawle ends up with 8 points (2-4 FG, 0-1 trey, 4-4 FT) including a nice sweeping espn-highlight two handed slam. +10 Nowitzki: B; Dirk was on fire early and never cooled off on his way to 51 points (16-24 FG, 3-4 treys, 16-17 FT), a season high as well as a career high for a non-overtime game. Dirk also snagged 9 rebounds to go with 5 assists, 2 steals and a blocked shot. Unfortunately Dirk also had a game high 5 turnovers. +54 Diop: B; DeSagana had a good game with 9 rebounds and a blocked shot to go with 2 points (1-1 FG). Zero turnovers. +13 Daniels: C; Marquis put up 12 points (6-8 FG) and had 4 assists but coughed the ball up 3 times as well. +14 Terry: C+; Jason?s missed free throw will be remembered, maybe as much as Richardson?s spinning trey over Terry. Too bad as Jason, even with foul trouble, had 29 points (10-18 FG, 2-7 treys, 7-8 FT) and a Mavs? high 7 assists. Of course, Jason was also part of the problem with 3 turnovers. +27 Stackhouse: D; Jerry has hit bottom on his shooting funk. He is now hesitant to take his shots, several times passing up the open jumper or not wanting to drive and not get the call. Stackhouse got 4 points (4-4) from the stripe but was 0-6 from the field. +0 M?Benga: B; DJ was part of the not drafted crew for a time in the game, along with Marshall and Powell as he got 2 blocked shots and grabbed a rebound in 3 minutes. +3 Dampier: C; Erick no doubt wanted this one bad against his former team mates. Erick?s defense was there tonight with 2 blocked shots and 10 rebounds, but was only 1-6 from the field along with being credited with 3 turnovers. +7 Powell: C, Josh had a nice power move to the basket for a bucket but otherwise struggled on the floor. +1 Armstrong : B; Darrell brought it tonight defensively but it wasn?t enough. Armstrong had one of his better scoring nights with 10 points (3-4 FG, 1-2 treys, 3-4 FT) and drew several charges tonight. +12 Griffin: DNP-CD, Adrian is out with a strained right hamstring. Van Horn: DNP-CD, Keith is with a strained MCL sustained when Darrell Armstrong was pushed into him in the Bobcat game. Keith has started light running and will accompany the team on their upcoming road trip. Harris: DNP-CD, Inactive. Devin is out with a sore quadriceps. Howard: DNP-CD, Inactive. Josh is out with a strained hamstring. Podkolzin: DNP-CD, Inactive. Pavel has been sent to the Fort Worth Flyers for playing time. Typical Chef Ed Type
The MASH unit is really catching up with the Mavs down the stretch. Dirk went nuts scoring 51 points, but I think this team really misses Devin Harris on the court. He's the best pure point guard on the team and does the best job of controlling tempo and quarterbacking the offense. I'm disappointed in Marquis Daniels not taking advantage of this opportunity. He's a throwback player, but often he tries to do more than he should on the court and turns the ball over. Tough loss, but the Warriors are playing very loose just like last season after they were out of the playoff race.
Damn Warriors..They'll always be spoilers at the end of the season. Really Avery let the game out of hand. There was no reason to panic after we got the lead. We could've just let the Warriors shoot 3's instead of intentionally fouling him and stopping the clock. Dirk had a monster game and really solidified his MVP justification in front of a national audience.
The Mavericks aren't outcoaching anyone during this last 3 game stretch. Where's the defense and the control of tempo? We don't have enough healthy guys who can finish to run with a team like GS right now. And it's about time for Daniels to show that he deserved the contract he was given.
Sh it happens man. They were shooting alot of lucky 3s down the stretch while we missed easy shots and a few gimme FT
<font color=""Blue"">nah I dont think theres a curse. I just think there was a lotta bad luck going the Mavs way. I mean, Jason Richardson had the best game of his life... well according to him. But seriously, the Mavs should have won with Dirk scoring 51 points and Jason scoring just about 30</font>
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting viggenja37:</div><div class="quote_post">Warriors 122 Mavs 121 Grades: The Nellie Curse? Nowitzki: B; Dirk was on fire early and never cooled off on his way to 51 points (16-24 FG, 3-4 treys, 16-17 FT), a season high as well as a career high for a non-overtime game. Dirk also snagged 9 rebounds to go with 5 assists, 2 steals and a blocked shot. Unfortunately Dirk also had a game high 5 turnovers. +54 </div> I've got to disagree with this grade. Dirk gets 54 points which is nearly 50% of the team's offensive output, and the only reason to justify him NOT getting an "A' is becasue he had 5 turnovers? Five turnovers is not great by any means, but for as much as he touches the ball, I would trade 54 points for 5 turnovers everytime. Dirk had an MVP-type performance, and that deserves at the very least an "A-". I like your other comments, even if I don't buy into the curse theory.
